Packaging of small articles for shipping often relies on the use of a simple rectangular box filled with various types of filler materials such as well known Styrofoam "peanuts," popcorn, foam rubber, expanded starch packing material, etc. However, these packing materials are inconvenient and/or undesirable in that they create debris which preferably is recycled but often is not. Storage of the packing material prior to use also consumes storage space. Further, despite the relatively small weight of most of the noted packing materials, these packing materials nonetheless increases the shipping costs as most shipping costs are based on weight.
A number of patents describe containers which maintain the object to be protected away from the walls of the container during shipping. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,771,184 to Ryno et al. shows a cylindrical package in which the object to be protected is placed between the two ends of a cylinder by a twisted plastic tube. The plastic tube is twisted tied above and below the article and held in tension in the center of the tube during shipping.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,301 to Bluemel shows a shock-proof packing container having a rectagonal outer carton and a polygonal inner support member. The polygonal support member is configured in such a way that it fits snugly inside the outer carton and in turn supports a flexible sling. The objects to be protected are wrapped in the sling and suspended in the interior both of polygonal inner member and the rectangular outer box.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,967 to Gonzales shows a packaging device also formed of an outside container and having a removable inner platform which, via the use of folded and integrated spacers, causes the object to be protected to be spaced apart from the walls of the container. The object to be shipped is held against the inner platform by, for instance, a plastic bag which envelops the object and that bag passes through an orifice within the support platform and is attached in some fashion to the edge of that platform. This patent further discusses other variations of protective packaging found in the prior art at column one.
None of the devices shown or described in any of these references shows the structure and features of the integrated packaging of the present invention.